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Greens Call Out Council Spending Thousands on Tennis as Austerity Bites

29 January 2019

At tonight’s meeting in Norwich City Hall, Leader of the Green Party Group, Councillor Denise Carlo, will be asking the council to justify spending nearly half a million pounds on tennis at various locations in the city, with nearly half that amount being spent on removing the city’s last remaining grass courts at Heigham Park.

Councillor Carlo said:

“A large number of local residents want to retain grass courts at Heigham Park, and the Heigham Park Grass Courts Group has even offered to take on the running and maintenance of grass tennis without charging the council at all. It’s unacceptable that such a large amount as £232 000 could be spent on tennis courts in Nelson ward, which has the second-lowest level of deprivation in the city. There are other parts of Norwich where the need for funding is greater and where residents would welcome investment in sporting facilities. So I don’t understand why the council wants to spend such a lot of money taking something away from people who want to keep it rather than making improvements for people who need them.”

Norwich City Council is seeking to replace ten grass courts at Heigham Park with three all-weather courts as part of a city-wide scheme which could receive funding from the Lawn Tennis Association.

Councillor Carlo added:

“The city council needs to take the offer of the Heigham Park Grass Tennis Group seriously in order to provide residents of Norwich with what they want in a way that is climate and community friendly.”

Notes:

The question Councillor Carlo will ask at the city council meeting is:

Norwich City Council plans to spend £232,000 capital spending on developing all-weather courts, a large proportion of which is proposed for replacing grass courts at Heigham Park with three all-weather floodlit courts.  Heigham Park Grass Courts Group have offered to take on the running and maintenance of grass tennis for free. A large number of local residents want to retain grass tennis at Heigham Park.  Nelson has the second lowest level of deprivation in the city; there are wards where deprivation is high and the need for capital spend far greater. Will the Cabinet member allow the community to take on maintenance of Heigham Park grass courts and divert the capital saved to areas of the city where the need is greater and residents support all-weather courts?